Nintendo looks to shift focus from Q4

Long-heralded by the trade as problematic quirk of the games industry, the Q4 rush brings great rewards for those who succeed but can yield a heavy price for those who fail – and Nintendo says that it intends to change the way it looks at the traditional release calendar very differently going forwards.

Speaking to MTV Multiplayer about the scheduled February release date of Super Smash Bros in the US, Nintendo of America's vice president of marketing Perrin Kaplin stated: Sunday is actually a really good launch day of the week for products. And I think we're actually starting to look at the annual calendar differently.

The first two quarters of the year tend to be more quiet. But now we've seen some evidence of sales in that period. Other than the holiday quarter, I think the traditional way of viewing it is not necessarily a slam-dunk. I think a really good product can be a slam dunk any time of the year.”

Nintendo has already proven that the importance of week-one sales is not necessarily an absolute, with sales of its popular Touch Generations DS games and many Wii titles successfully sustaining themselves for some considerable time after release.